Backpackers.com

Is this flashpacking?

Flashpacking refers to the use of tech-gadgets by backpackers.

Our friend, Tom, uses a GPS to make sure he can wander around strange towns without getting lost, and Pia doesn’t leave home without her MP3 player.

Since there are some cool festivals coming up, we’d like to suggest another gadget for the flashpacker’s arsenal: “The beerbellyâ€?.

It’s a strap on “bellyâ€? that you can fill with liquid – so you can “enjoy a tasty beverage wherever you wantâ€?.

Posted in Backpackers Bookmarks | 2 Comments »

Backpackers in Ireland soon

July is Ireland month on Backpackers.com. We’ll be highlighting all things Irish for a Backpacker to do and know. From the best parties and festivals in Ireland, to the cheapest ways to explore the country.

If you’d like to be reminded about this, sign up for our newsletter, From the Road. It’s sent to you once a month, with prizes to win and info to make you a better backpacker!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Do you keep a travelogue?

Backpackers have always kept travel journals. We used to scribble notes and stick photos into tatty little books and postcards. Then years later we could remember of some of what we experienced, complete with wine stains and frayed edges.

Now backpacking’s gone high-tech. We’re only lost if we can’t find an internet cafe somewhere! We capture our experiences with our cell-phone cameras, send the photos to our “travelogues”, and we use forums to find people to meet us wherever we’re going next. We even investigate and book our accomodation online.

How do you record your travel experiences and keep in touch?

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

FezBus ‘Istanbul Welcome’ competition

Are you headed to Turkey soon?

Wanna win:

• Inbound transfer to your hostel;
• an Istanbul city tour(entrance fees included); and
• 2 nights shared accommodation in a hostel?

Well, we’re giving away two of these packages this week! (Thanks, IAH Holidays)

Just answer two questions:

Q1: In what city does the FezBus ‘Diamonds of the Mediterranean’ tour start and end? (hint)

Q2: What date is the last day on the FezBus ‘5-day Istanbul Grand Prix’ itinerary? (hint)

Send your answers here: FezBus Istanbul Competition

More info…

Posted in Competitions & Giveaways, Destinations | 5 Comments »

Diesels Are the New Heroin

It would seem that Bangkok’s more innovative backpackers have found a new and very 21st century way of boosting their budgets in order to prolong their Thailand stay…

In ‘Diesels Are the New Heroin’ Jeff Koyen of Wired News writes:

‘BANGKOK, Thailand – Not long ago, backpackers in Thailand running short of cash would smuggle weed, heroin, hashish – even yaba, southeast Asia’s version of speed. But after so many horror stories about Thai prisons, what was once a quasi-romantic risk is now strictly for corrupt border cops and Chinese mobsters.’

‘The traveler in Thailand is no longer sticking baggies of smack up his crack and praying for a short-fingered customs official; he’s hawking designer knockoffs on auction sites like eBay. Diesel and Lacoste are the most popular brands, but Birkenstock and Adidas are known moneymakers. They mail the merchandise from Bangkok and pray their buyers don’t call bullshit.’

‘This is The Beach, several years on. Bangkok’s backpackers are no longer seeking out that unspoiled stretch of sand; they just want to earn enough money to avoid going home — without, God forbid, teaching English. It’s a bull market for these e-bootleggers; everywhere you ask, an expat has an auction about to end.’

> Full Story

Posted in Destinations, Travel News | No Comments »

Urban Travel Guides

Gridskipper pointed me in the direction of ‘Michael Brein’s Travel Guides’, a series of pocket-sized guides geared towards sightseeing in several major cities, using the public transport system as a point of reference.

‘This is a simple idea really, and no surprise that someone’s tackled it – Michael Brein, the “Travel Psychologist,â€? has a series of guidemaps based on sightseeing major cities via public transit. Thirteen current guides cover major cities in Europe and the United States, plus Sydney; more titles are coming out all the time. Each guide contains an enlarged version of the city’s official transit map, accompanied by area/locator maps highlighting major attractions; colored lines indicate the shortest routes between each attraction and the closest transit stop(s). The guides cost $5.95 a pop and are available as in printed or PDF form.’

> Gridskipper – The Urban Travel Guide

Posted in Destinations, Travel News | No Comments »

iPods more popular than beer?

According to a recent survey of students at one hundred universities in the United States, campus boozing is no longer rated the best way to while away the hours… In its place, atop the great student hierarchy of needs: quality time spent with an Apple iPod.

What is the world coming to? Since when did students care more about gadgets and gizmos than good old-fashioned friendship-making, memory-blurring beer-drinking with their buddies?

At a guess, we won’t be seeing any of these technophiles at the Munich Oktoberfest any time soon.

So be it. More beer for the rest of us!

Source: Cooltech Iafrica

Posted in Travel News | No Comments »

Running scared at the running of the bulls

Check out Michael Martinez’s article, ‘Running scared at the running of the bulls’, a first-hand account of his encounter with the Pamplonian bulls:

‘In a few minutes, a flare is going to be fired into the sky, a corral door will swing open, and six bulls weighing 1,000 pounds each are going to hurtle toward me – toward all of us. We will have to run with every ounce of energy just to stay in front of their horns.’

Posted at the Houston Chronicle, the article includes handy travel tips and general festival and bullfight information.

Posted in Destinations, Festivals | No Comments »

Bull Run ‘Terror Factor’ Low?

My fascination for the morbid overtook me today when I spotted ‘A Walk on the wild side?’ an article on LJWorld in which ASAP writer Zach Dundas rates the likelihood of one’s death as a result of encounters with some of nature’s more dangerous creatures.

Here’s his take on the dangers of being ‘Gored by a bull’:

>’The facts: The annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, always gives a few bright dudes the opportunity to make this happen, occasionally with fatal results.’

‘The fury: The bulls run eight times during Pamplona’s San Fermin festival, pursuing white-uniformed daredevils through city streets for several minutes. Last July, the pack of 12 cattle broke apart, with single bulls marauding and tossing human runners like rag dolls. Four “competitorsâ€? were gored. In 1995, an American died after a Pamplona bull gouged his abdomen.

‘The feast: Cows don’t eat people. They just sometimes puncture them.’

> ‘Terror factor: LOW. C’mon.’

Dundas ranks the ‘terror factor’ of being ‘Chomped by a gator’ as ‘moderate’ and being ‘Smothered by ants’ as ‘extreme’…

I don’t know – that bull run still looks pretty scary to me. I have a feeling he might up the terror factor some if he was about to hurtle down the bull run with five enormous (angry) bulls breathing down his neck, don’t you?

Posted in Festivals | No Comments »

Pamplona Bull Run Video

What’s On When has a short video of the Pamplona Bull Run that’s worth a look-see. Brief interviews with white-and-red-clad festival-goers and footage of the bull run itself (with its fair share of tramplings and almost-gorings) give one an idea of the mayhem that is synonymous with this part of the San Fermin Festival.

Posted in Destinations, Festivals | No Comments »